Well, for the first time in my adult life, I am officially roommate-less. Shoutout to Zenja for being such a fun roommate from day one, and making me feel included the minute I arrived in Yellowstone. Here’s a recap of our last few days together…

Her last work day was on a Friday, and she departed the following Tuesday, and finally on her LAST DAY working, the last piece of my uniform arrived, my flat hat! Finally being able to own and wear one and complete my uniform means so much to me, it may be a small thing to most of you, but a ranger flat hat is uniquely distinguishable to the NPS and by wearing one at work, I finally feel like my five year old self’s dream has truly become a reality. Anyways, here is a cute photo the #teamBaer crew took on Zenja’s last work day in front of Old Faithful.

Zenja, Michael and I got super close over the summer, and they always joked that I was the glue that made us 3 so tight, which is why Michael nicknamed us #teamBaer.

In other work/ranger news, the visitation has been slowing down as kids are going back to school, which has been a nice change of pace. The geysers are still erupting, and we are having a little ranger competition among us. By far across the staff, most of us our favorite geyser is Beehive Geyser, it is an unpredictable geyser that erupts around every 22-30 hours and is taller than, longer than and more exciting than Old Faithful. If you’re lucky enough to be on the platform when Beehive erupts, you’ll be ‘Baptized by Beehive’ is what us rangers call it. So, we are having a ‘who wore Beehive best’ competition, and I caught two eruptions in my last work week, so here’s my ‘in the running’ photos.

Also, programs are finally back! It’s the best!! I have given a few so far, I gave 2 Experiencing Wildlife programs, one Geyser Hill walk and I am scheduled to give a Ranger’s Choice talk on Wednesday, which of course I will be talking about trees! As nerve wracking as it is to give programs at times, it’s also super fun to give people that intimate ranger experience they want!

Overall, Rangering makes me happy, and I know I say this all the time, but I am unbelievably grateful for the opportunity I have had this summer, and considering how amazing this summer has been, I have no doubts that I have chosen the right field for myself.

For Zenja’s last weekend, we split up, as she had extra days off and had a blast camping in the Tetons, while I went on a backpacking trip with Jessie and Colin! We hiked Bighorn Pass which was about 20 miles, doing about 13.5 miles on day one and 6.5 miles out the second day. This was my first backpacking trip in forever, and I absolutely loved it, there’s something about carrying everything on your back and feeling super self sufficient in the woods without anyone else around that is such a unique and freeing experience.

It was a simple overnight, but super fun, we made a campfire and Jessie was brave enough to take a dip in the Gallatin River which was FREEZING. We saw some Mountain Goats and Colin & Jessie helped me practice my Geyser Hill walk program around the campfire before we went to bed at the 9 o’clock hour because we were exhausted!

That evening, when we returned from our trip was Zenja’s last night in Yellowstone. Per her request, we tried to catch several different geyser eruptions, but failed a bit… we missed Grand and Great Fountain, which was a bummer. However, we were able to catch the traditional farewell Old Faithful eruption around 9:15pm, but we had to wait for 40 minutes, so we hung out in the Inn and listened to some nice live piano music. After that, we snuck into the Visitors Center after hours and played the 5 time Oscar winning, exemplary Land to Life 20 minute film. (P.S. it doesn’t have any Oscars, this is just a running joke on our team, but it’s still a pretty good movie regardless).

With that, thank you Zenja for an amazing summer, good luck in grad school you geology nerd, I’ll miss you and can’t wait to visit you in Bellingham during my off season!

On Thursday, I requested a day off so I could go out to Cody with Paige and Nat to check out the Buffalo Bill Museum of the West. This was a phenomenal museum and rangers get in for free!! They had 5 different museums that covered: Natural History, Western Art, Firearms, Buffalo Bill and Plains Indians. The museum was so fascinating, and I learned so much, plus it was nice to take a random day off in the middle of the week and just spend some time with my girls. They’re dorks like me and have kid hearts, so we played on the playground, did all the scavenger hunts to earn stickers and colored postcards during our time there.

Sunday, I got to go to the 6th unofficial entrance into Yellowstone, Bechler! This area is about 3 hours Southeast of Old Faithful, and in order to make a day trip out of it, we had to wake up at the crack of dawn and left by 5:00am. But that early wake up was sooooo WORTH IT! We hiked in eight miles to Dunanda Falls and got to soak in natural hot springs.

The water ranged from icy cold waterfall mist, to lukewarm bath water to yeesh that is HOT WATER. But it was a nice secret little locals spot to hang out and enjoy lunch at while soaking in a thermal area.

This trip was definitely a highlight of the summer and one I will keep in my back pocket to go to again sometime!

Until next time, love Ranger Baer!